Well, we have talked on this podcast about Satan. Not a lot. We don't fixate on him. But we do talk about him and his designs, usually to look at what Satan cannot do to us. There's a lot he can't do to us as Christians because Christ has disarmed him in two very important ways.

We looked at this back in February in B.J. 1750. Pastor John, today we're going to flip the question and ask, "What can Satan do to Christians?" Peter warns believers that Satan seeks to devour us, us believers, which raises two questions. One from Russ in Virginia Beach, Virginia. He writes this, "Hello Pastor John, my question for you is about 1 Peter 5, verses 8 and 9.

Is Peter saying that the devil seeks to devour us in and through our suffering, or is he saying the constant attacks of Satan are our suffering?" And Steve in Rochester, New York is asking about this same text. Pastor John, "Hello, 1 Peter 5, 8 says that Satan is our enemy, and I believe it.

But enemies are opposed to us in very specific ways, and I'm not clear about this with Satan. My question is, how? How is Satan our enemy? Thank you." First, here's what the text says in 1 Peter 5, 8 and 9. It says, "Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

Resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the whole world." So, Russ asks, "Does the word 'sufferings' refer to whatever Satan does to us, or does it refer to actual Christian pain or suffering which Satan is behind?" I think virtually all interpreters agree that the second is the right answer.

Peter is referring to real sufferings of various kinds that Christians are experiencing throughout the world, and Satan is behind them, making every effort to use those sufferings to destroy the faith of Christians. That's what "seeking to devour" means. He would succeed in devouring a Christian if he could use those sufferings to cause us to throw away our faith in the goodness and the wisdom and the care of God and turn us against God.

I think that's a right interpretation about what "sufferings" refers to first, because the other kinds of temptations that Satan throws at us, like temptations to lust or covetousness or pride, these kinds of temptations can indeed devour people, and he's about them. But they're not called "sufferings." So, not all of Satan's attacks on us are called "sufferings." In fact, Satan is very good at attacking us with pleasures as often as with sufferings.

More people's faith, I would venture, is devoured by being lured into sinful pleasure as is devoured by sufferings. Another reason that I think that interpretation is right, namely that Satan's particular strategy referred to here in verse 9 is Christian suffering, is that Peter had already referred to this in chapter 1, verses 6 and 7.

He says, "Now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved through various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." So, he has already prepared us at the very beginning of his letter that our faith will be tested as with fire through these various trials, that is, sufferings.

So, in answering Russ's question, I think we're already in the middle of answering Steve's question, because Steve is asking, "Well, what are the specific ways that this satanic lion opposes us? How is he our enemy in this text?" Now, the main answer we've seen is by causing Christian suffering, which he hopes—I mean, his aim in causing that suffering is to deceive us into believing that God is against us and not for us, that God is helpless, perhaps, can't stop the suffering, poor God.

In other words, by this suffering, Satan aims to undermine our faith in God's goodness or God's power or God's wisdom or God's kindness. And if Satan can do that, we will be devoured, destroyed as Christians. We will make shipwreck of our faith and he will have won a tactical victory.

But we can be more specific now in how Satan does this, because that's what Steve is asking. I'll give four examples of how Satan opposes Christians through suffering. First, Satan is behind much, though not all, sickness. For example, after Jesus heals the woman bent over for 18 years, he defends his action to the rulers by saying, "Ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan bound for 18 years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?" In other words, Satan is behind this disease, this bent condition that this woman is in for 18 years.

We see an example of this in the lives of Christians in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7, where Paul had been given those amazing visions, remember? And Paul explains how God designed, planned to keep him from getting conceited by these visions. Here's verse 7 of 2 Corinthians 12. "So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being conceited." This is especially important because here we have both the activity of God and the activity of Satan.

We know that Satan did not aim at preventing Paul's pride. He wants Paul to be conceited. He wants to destroy his faith with pride. Saving Paul from conceit was God's purpose. God aimed to keep Paul humble and holy. And yet, the instrument of God's sanctifying work is called a messenger of Satan.

That's amazing. So what we learn is that even when Satan is bringing about some kind of thorn or suffering in the life of a Christian, he's not sovereign. He's not ultimate. He's under God's supervision. And while Satan's design is the destruction of Paul's faith, God's design is the strengthening of Paul's faith and the preservation of his holiness and his humility.

But there's another way that Satan brings about the suffering of Christians. He sometimes throws them into prison. Revelation 2.10, "Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation.

Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life." And we ask, "Well, how might Satan do that? How does Satan do that? How does he throw Christians into prison?" And one answer is, the same way he threw Jesus under arrest in the garden. The same way he threw Jesus on the cross.

How did that happen? Here's John 13.2, "During supper, the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him." Then verse 27, "After Judas had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. And Jesus said to him, 'What you are going to do, do quickly.' And he went out and betrayed Jesus." As it were, threw him in prison.

Worse. We can assume that sort of thing happens regularly to cause Christians much suffering. Satan puts it in the heart of people to betray Christians or to lie about Christians and so bring them into suffering, whether prison or some other consequence. So I conclude that in 1 Peter 5, 8, and 9, the lion's roar, this roaring lion going about trying to devour people, the lion's roar is the roar of Satan's effort to strike fear into Christians by the suffering he brings into their lives.

He aims for that fear to destroy their faith. We know from 2 Corinthians 12 and from the story of Job 1 and from the fact that Jesus commands demons and they obey him that Satan is not sovereign. God is. Wherever Satan is acting, he's acting by permission, not because he has ultimate control.

Nevertheless, he's real. Oh, he is real. He is strong. He's evil. He's on a long leash. Under God's providence, he does terrible damage. Therefore, Peter does not say, "Ho-hum. God is sovereign." He says, "Be sober. Be watchful. Resist. Resist. Firm in your faith. Fight. That is, take up the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, and stick Satan in face with it.

Believe God's promise and stand your ground. Do not be sucked into Satan's temptation that God is evil or that God is weak. Let the fires of suffering purify and strengthen your faith, not destroy it." Stick Satan in the face with the Word. So good. Thank you, Pastor John. And thank you for joining us today.

We're going to break for the weekend now, and when the weekend is over, we will get back to work. And back to work, thinking about work and how we can be most fruitful by leaning on good administrative structures. We've never talked about this angle of leadership in the podcast.

We should. It should be interesting. How do we build the structures in place that we need so that we can maximize our fruitfulness to our calling in the world? That question is relevant for ministries, relevant for Christian business leaders as well, and it's on the table. I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

We'll see you then on Monday. (end) (music)